Robinson Crusoe was born in York to immigrant trader parents, and so was raised near the Hull shipping yards. Because of his lust for adventure and his desire to sail the ocean, he visits the shipyards regularly, and eventually gives in to impulse and jumps a ship sailing to London:

But being one day at Hull, where I went casually, and without any purpose of making an elopement at that time... on the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London.(Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, eNotes eText)

This first voyage is met first with with misfortune, and then with outright disaster, as Crusoe is very ill during the first part and almost relents. However, after a shipmate gets him drunk, he resolves to continue the trip. At that point, a high storm shipwrecks him, and instead of returning to Hull he continues his adventures, leading to his slavery and then his becoming a castaway.